PATRO L Phillip MacDonald
In the Mesopotamian desert during World War I, the leader of a British patrol is shot and killed by an unseen enemy. The officer is the only one who knows their orders and has not told anyone else where they are located. From then on, the sergeant has to try to lead the men through a hostile desert landscape full of hidden Arab snipers. This thrilling tale of suspense was a bestseller in the 1920s, and has been adapted for cinema by Walter Summers (as Lost Patrol, 1929) and John Ford (as The Lost Patrol, 1934). Philip Macdonald was one of the most popular mystery writers of the 1930s, and wrote over 25 novels. During World War I he served with the British cavalry in Mesopotamia. He later trained horses for the army, was a show jumper, and moved to Hollywood in 1931.
May 2016
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9781612003788
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£9.99
The CASEMATE CLASSIC WAR FICTION series publishes new editions of forgotten classics that perfectly capture their era, starting with the conflict that gave birth to gritty realism in fiction, WWI.
The inaugural season of Casemate's new Classic War Fiction series launching May 2016 Forgotten classics available again after decades of being out of print Beautifully illustrated jackets in paperback format
Towards the end of the war in November 1918, a British raiding party under fire stumble across a strange and eerie scene in a ruined chateau. Following the strains of a familiar tune – and perplexed as to who would be playing the piano in the midst of shellfire – they discover a German general lying dead at the keys next to a beautiful woman in full evening dress, also deceased. The mystery deepens as it emerges that the officer is the spitting image of G. B. Bretherton, a British captain missing in action… This tale of intrigue and identity, first published in 1930, is not only an authentic account of conditions at the front, but is also a remarkable espionage thriller with a highly unusual plot. Bretherton was considered a classic of the genre, and was ranked alongside the works of John Buchan. W. F. Morris was an English novelist who served with the 13th Cycle Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment during WWI, reached the rank of major at 27, and was awarded the Military Cross. He wrote ten novels, of which Bretherton is perhaps the best known.
May 2016
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9781612003764
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£9.99
BRETHERTON KHAKI OR FIELD-GREY? W.F. Morris
WWW.C A SEMA T EP UBL I SH ER S . CO . U K
UNDER FIRE Henri Barbusse
Set in early 1916, Under Fire follows a squad of French volunteer soldiers through the eyes of an unnamed foot soldier, who participates in and also observes the action. It combines soaring, poetic descriptions with the mundane, messy, human reality of soldiers living in their own excrement. Then slowly names and features are given to the men who emerge from the mud, from the dignified leader Corporal Bertrand, to the ebullient Volpatte and the obsessive Cocon. Intermingled with details of how they navigate daily life in the putrified atmosphere of the trenches are both harrowing descriptions and a political, pacifist argument about this war and war more generally. Caught up in events they cannot control, the soldiers go through their daily routines: foraging for food, reading letters from wives and mothers, drinking, fighting in battle, and in heavily realistic scenes which the novel is noted for, discovering dead bodies in advanced stages of decomposition; the human detritus of a brutal conflict. Through it all, they talk about the war, attempting to make sense of the altered world in which they find themselves. Under Fire drew criticism at the time of its publication for its harsh realism, but won the Prix Goncourt. The original translation by Fitzwater Wray which first appeared in 1917 is published here. It captures the essence of the era; a glossary is also provided to help with unfamiliar vocabulary.
May 2016
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9781612003825
WWW.C A SEMA T EP UBL I SH ER S . CO . U K
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ÂŁ9.99
‘The million British dead have left no books behind. What they felt as they died hour by hour in the mud, or were choked horribly with gas, or relinquished their reluctant lives on stretchers, no witness tells. But here is a book that almost tells it… This is the story of millions of men – of millions.’ – H. G. Wells, Preface. First published in 1927, heroics and self-sacrifice are completely absent in Gristwood’s novels. Instead, his gritty realism focuses on life in WWI for the ordinary soldier. The Somme relates the story of Everitt, who is wounded and moved back through a series of dressing stations to the General Hospital at Rouen. Both in and out of the line he behaves selfishly and unheroically, but his circumstances and the conditions around him make his actions easy to understand. The Coward concerns a man who shoots himself in the hand to escape the war during the March 1918 retreat – an offence punishable by death. Based on A. D. Gristwood’s own wartime experiences, and written under the guidance of master storyteller H. G Wells, critics have said that few other accounts of the war give such an accurate picture of trench life. Arthur Donald Gristwood enlisted in 1915 at the age of twenty-two, joining the 5th London Regiment. He was later discharged due to injuries. He committed suicide in 1933.
May 2016
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9781612003801
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THE SOMME ALSO INCLUDING THE COWARD A. D. Gristwood
WWW.C A SEMA T EP UBL I SH ER S . CO . U K
£8.99
PASS GUARD AT YPRES Ronald Gurner
A platoon of inexperienced British soldiers crosses to France, in excited and nervous anticipation of what is to come; they find themselves at Ypres where the battle-weary Allied troops are dug in, and slaughter surrounds them. With their young, upright officer Freddy Mann, they are soon in the thick of it, burying the dead, experiencing the terror of bombardment, being picked off by snipers, with some unable to cope and refusing to go over the top. We see the action through their eyes, from privates to the senior officers of the wider battalion, with a focus on Freddy Mann’s journey from idealistic officer barely out of school, to battle-hardened cynic, barely hanging on as those around him are cut down, maimed or crack. Freddy suffers a crisis of faith and loses his belief in the war and everything he once stood for; as he wrestles with his conscience he finds that for all ‘always at the end, is Ypres’.
August 2016
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9781612004112
WWW.C A SEMA T EP UBL I SH ER S . CO . U K
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£8.99
A profound and very human account of the early years of the war, told from the perspective of a father rather than combatants, but no less revealing. Mr Britling lives in the quintessentially English town of Matching’s Easy in Essex. He is a great thinker, an essayist, but most of all an optimist. When war arrives he is forced to reassess many of the things he had been so sure of. The war brings great change - Belgian refugees come with dreadful stories and everywhere it seems there are young men dressed in khaki. The family’s young German tutor is forced to head back to Germany, and Mr Britling’s seventeen year old son enlists in the Territorials. Day by day and month by month, Wells chronicles the unfolding events and public reaction as witnessed by the inhabitants of one house in rural Essex. Each of the characters tries in a different way to keep their bearings in a world suddenly changed beyond recognition. Tragedy ensues, Mr Britling must wrestle with outrage, grief and attempts at rationalisation as he ‘sees it through’. Written in 1916, while the outcome of the war was still uncertain, this is both a fascinating portrait of Britain at war, and a chronicle of events seen from a contemporary perspective, and an insight into H. G. Wells himself, Mr Britling being a largely autobiographical character.
August 2016
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9781612004150
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£9.99
MR BRITLING SEES IT THROUGH H. G. Wells
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BEHIND THE LINES W. F. Morris
‘I never saw the man again, alive or dead. One will say that I saw him only for a moment, that it was misty at the time, and that even I did not recognise the features, covered as they were with grime and stubble. Yet I am sure that the taller of the two ragged civilians I saw in the chalk quarry that misty March morning of 1918 was that Lieutenant Peter Rawley, R. F.A., who the official records stated was killed near Arras the previous autumn.’ Behind the Lines is a thriller that follows on from the success of W. F. Morris’s first novel, Bretherton: Khaki or Field-Grey?, and concerns itself again with questions of identity, allegiance, chance, concealment and self-discovery. A subaltern is forced to flee when he accidentally kills an overbearing, taunting fellow officer: appearances are all against him and he does not trust trench justice. He becomes a fugitive and has to join forces with other deserters, lost soldiers and outlaws in a hand-to-mouth existence no man’s land. A series of adventures and disasters ensue, including capture by the Germans and near death by firing squad. Only his own bravery and the devotion of his fiancé can rescue him from his plight.
August 2016
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9781612004136
WWW.C A SEMA T EP UBL I SH ER S . CO . U K
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£9.99
ROUX THE BANDIT André Chamson
Set deep in the mountains of southern France, this charming short novel tells the story of a man from the Cèvennes Mountains called Roux, who refuses to join the army at the outbreak of war in 1914. Instead, he flees and hides in the hills, only returning occasionally to the farm where he left his mother and sisters. The people of the valley condemn his desertion and they hope the police will find his hideout. But as the months and the years go by, and the horrors of the trenches become known, the local people start to understand Roux’s actions. Roux begins to appear in the village more often, helping out and explaining that his decision was taken out of respect for the Bible. His arrest at the end of the War is therefore met with sadness and regret. Chamson explores questions of perception, morality and conscience with a lightness of touch coupled with an atmospheric picture of life in a WWI era rural community.
August 2016
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9781612004174
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£7.99
All trade orders can be placed with Orca Book Services. Tel: +44 (0)1235 465500 email: orders@orcabookservices.co.uk. If you do not have a trade account with Orca contact us at: trade@casematepublishers.co.uk. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT YOUR SALES REPRESENTATIVE JEAN-MARC EVANS London, Paris & the South of England jean-marc.evans@casematepublishers.co.uk ANDREW TARRING Midlands, Wales & the North of England andrew.tarring@casematepublishers.co.uk All other, contact ELISA ROSOLIN Casemate UK office elisa.rosolin@casematepublishers.co.uk WWW.C A SEMA T EP UBL I SH ER S . CO . U K